Original things for original people.

Monthly Archives: May 2013

Before I announced the winner of my blog candy, I first wanted to say that this blog hop was amazing. It took me longer than I planned to look at everybody’s blog because my keyboard decide to quit working on me. I’m still trying to figure out of what is wrong with it. Meanwhile, I was fortunate enough that I was able to borrow this laptop. I think everyone did an amazing job on their cards, I learned a couple of tricks and become jealous of some of the stamps that my fellow card makers had. But most of all, I think our soldiers will be tickled pink when they get the cards.

One of the things that my father taught me, is when dealing with people, always put your hands above the table. Be honest and be polite. As well I wished that I have a video camera, so I can prove that I am being honest. Except I do not have one. So I am hoping that these pictures will help.

I also alpologized in advance for my paranoia or whatever you called it. Several years ago, I used to work in an auction house where I dealt with alot of dishonest people. And unfortunately, I don’t have that trust anymore. I am working on it to get it back. But this is the reason of why I am doing this with pictures.

I can say that I had 106 entries which I was impressed. I was honestly hoping for at least five. The way I have done this was I copied and paste everyone’s comments to a wordpad. I then deleted everything, but the name. I also delete the names of the people who requested not to be put in the draw. After that I numbered the list and place them into columns. Mainly because I knew that I was going have three pages. I also doublecheck the names.

Here is a close up of the list. I don’t know how I got that break in the list. Nevertheless, the count was still consisted so I left it there instead of fighting with it. And I did tried to rotate the picture before posting it here, but no such luck.

So congradulations Lisa. I will be emailing you shortly to let you know and of course be asking for your snail mail address.

So thank you again for your entries. And I finally figured out of how to set up a follower button on the side so if you would like to follow my blog. Please do. My next blog will be the cloud tutorial, which will be posted tomorrow. Until then, have a good day.

Hello, I decide to join in this blog hop at OWH Stars and Stamp Blog which I think it will be fun. I am always fantastic of how other people make their cards. So here is my card
using Sketch #44;.

Even though I am a Canadian, I do support the troops. They volunteered their services, knowing full well that they will be separate from their love ones for long periods of time. They know that they will miss their friends and family. They will miss their children’s soccer games, dinner with their family at their favourite restaurant, watching the Superbowl, or even going shopping at their mall. They do all this to give us our freedom. And yet, I can’t imagine of how much they miss them. So I do hope that these cards can bring their loves one some comfort.

In honor of my first blog hop, I am offering this prize

I have more detail photos of the prize in the previous post, “Prize Details”. There are Hero Arts Everyday Stamps, four Studio J stamps, rhinestones, Craftsmart ribbon, and crochet flower embellishment. All which you can make wonderful cards. All you have to do is a leave a comment which has your email address. And I will pick a random winner. Random as in letting the computer decide in one of those number generator programs. You have until Monday at midnight. And to make things more simple, I hope. My timezone is on MDT, or -6 according to the word clock guide. And I am two hours behind from eastern time. I hope that helps. Sometimes these times zones drive me nuts especially when I have friends in Australia and a sister in Louisiana.

So good luck everyone and enjoy your weekend!

UPDATE! ! ! First of thank you for everyone for stopping by and commenting. But I was going to ask people to put their email address down if they don’t have a blog so I can email you in case you win a prize, but then I looked down and see of all of these emails. Good grief, I am not a computer tech girl. However since I am getting a big response on the cloud background. My upcoming blogs (The second one because the first one is going to be announcing the winner.) I will post a picture tutorial of how to do it. It is quite simple. So happy blog hopping.

FINALLY UPDATE ! ! ! The drawing is offically close. I am going to be doing the draw, later on today. Mostly because it is almost 1 in the morning. I still welcome your comments, but I want to let you know that the drawing is close.

So tomorrow is the blog hop for Operation Write Home. And I really hope that I got that link working. I decide to participart because it will be full and it will be for a good cause. I’m also giving away a prize. The details of how to enter is in the next blog, “Blog Hop.”
Basically if you enter, you might win a prize. The prize includes five stamps, ribbon, rhinestone and flower.

For the past couple of days, I have been going through all of my supplies, trying to get everything organized, once again. I realized that I have more than enough cardstock, pattern paper, ribbon, blank cards and enevolopes. I still have a few more drawers to go through. Some of them, I cannot open because it is so full of stuff.

However I have been going through my cards, figuring out of why some of them aren’t selling. I realized the right question is why am I not using them? Maybe some of them are too girly for your nephew and vice versa?

I have taken a good look at them and realized that some of them are over 5 years old and my skills as a card maker have improved greatly. So I threw out a bunch of cards, (I saved the envelopes). Already I have a huge garbage bag full of cards in the middle of my room and I have two more containers to go through tomorrow. The ones that I have gone through like birthday and Christmas, I have tons of room in my containers which is good.

The bad part of all of this purging, I have not worked on my orders. I need to get back on them asap.

But that may be a problem, because next Saturday, Operation Write Home is hosting a Blog Hop. Already I have the song, “At the Hop” by Danny and the Juniors in my head.

I do believe that this will help my business. However this blog is still under construction. I finally figured out of how to get the word links working, but not the picture one.

And I need to figure out of how to get a gallery up there. Actually I am thinking of two galleries. One of the things that I am selling and the second one of what I have done, like a portfolio.

And my computer guy is still unavailable. How come I have a feeling that a few taps on a keyboard, he will set it up in less than a minute? You got to love Murphy’s Law.

Anyway, back to the blog. I am toying with the idea of having a prize. Something small and easy to mail, like a set of stamps. I have to see of what is there at the store.

I never meet the woman or even seen her cards before Operations Write Home (OWH) did a blog about her. She was one of the card makers that contributed her handmade cards to this organizations. Sadly she passed away. Her family donated all of her card making supplies to the charity which I thought it was very sweet. So in honor of her memory, OWH had sent challenge of us to make of her cards. Here is her cards.

As you can see, I changed the layout in the my blog. I’m still trying to figure of how to add a link to my online shop and vice versa. As well as setting up a gallery of items that I am selling and what I had made. I am also debating whether or not, to change the photo banner above.

I watched You-Tube videos just before going to bed. Beside learning new techniques and getting inspire for upcoming projects, it drains my smart phone so I can plug it and have it fully charge in the morning.

One of the channels that I watched is Vickypgr, https://www.youtube.com/user/vickypgr . She is an expert on paper piecing and makes wonderful cards. Her photo banner is a field of daisies. The questions is if I replace the photo, what do I replace it with? I have to come up with a photo that combines knitting, crochet, and cards. At this moment, I am more concern of getting the links working.

I do know two computer experts that I can asked. One of them lives in the USA and she has a crazy work schedule where we can only leave email messages to each other. The second one lives in the same town as I do, but he is going through some personal issues which I am giving him some space and time to deal with them. So I will keep tinkering.

My schedule is another thing that I am still tweaking. Like when I do make things for Original Things, myself and charities like Operation Write Home. I decide that the odd days like May 5th, 7th, and 11th, I will work on things for Original Things. And the even days, will be for the other. Why?

Two reasons mostly. I only made 3 or 4 scarves and a hat for myself. For years, I swore that I am going to make myself a pair of slippers and finish the blanket. And years later, my feet are still cold and the blanket is still in pieces. So I am going to see if this schedule works.

My second reason is that everything for Original Things is made in a smoke free environment. And I do prefer everything I make in a smoke free environment. But I can frebreeze my slippers if I have to. Two people in my life at this moment are smokers and one of them happens to be my boyfriend. When we hang out, I can’t knit or crochet. He tells me it is a good thing because I need a break. And he gives himself cancer at the same time. I’m still scratching my head at his explanation.

But when we watch a movie, or go on a road trip where he is drives, I find myself fidgeting in my seat. I need a project to keep me distract while we are on our road trip.

Besides slippers and a blanket, one of my best friend asked me to crochet her a dragon. Then there are the Christmas presents. And yes, I know it is May, but say for example, I want to knit a sweater for my dad, it will take time to knit. And I not going to be pulling all nighters working on it.

It is one of the charities that I supported. You donated handmade cards to the soldiers who are deployed, they then send the cards to their love ones.

I do supported the soliders, but I am also a Canadian. What does that mean exactly, you asked? Believe it or not, because I am a Canadian, I am considered a foreigner. I am can still support the troops, but I am not allow to send certain things like food. As well in Canada, we do not have a flat rate shipping, which is too bad. So if I mail a care package, I have to considered the cost of the postage. There is no one flat rate for me. So with this charity, I can mail several cards in one small package.

This week, they had a challenge which I thought, why not. I had to make a card to this sketch.

Operation Write Home

So here is my card.

My card from Sketch 171

It is a simple card, with a sunset. As well the card is white so the solider can write on both sides of the card to his or her love one.